Image::Mate.pm is an interface to the Perl GD, Imager and ImageMagick modules. Theoretically you'll be able to code the same image routines no matter which of the before mentioned modules you have available. Very useful if your scripts can end up on all different kinds of servers and you never know what image modules are available.

This method returns a list of what graphics modules are available. List can be in the form of a hash listing all modules with either a 1 or 0 value. Or an array listing only those available. NOTE: If you run setpref before this routine then the array returned by this method will only contain what you set. This routine can be exported the local namespace using use Image::Mate qw( im_available );

This method allows you to set the preference list of which graphics modules you should use first. The default is "Imager","GD","Image::Magick". If successful 0 will be returned, otherwise it'll be an error code with descriptive error. You cannot set modules that are not available. If you are unsure what graphics modules you have available run Image::Mate->available first. This routine can be exported the local namespace using use Image::Mate qw( im_setpref );

Returns an image object. If there was an error with creating this object it will be in $img->{ERROR}. "c" can have the value of 0 or 1. 0 for stand colour (usually 8bit) or 1 for high colour (usually 16bit).

Saves the image to a file. Supported types are GIF, PNG, and JPG, default is JPG. For JPG you can define QUALITY as 0-100 (100 best quality, 0 worest). For PNG you can define COMPRESSION as 0-9 (0 best quality, 9 worest).

They are all available on CPAN. Just run a search http://search.cpan.org As long as you have any one of these modules installed Image::Mate will work.

On linux I recommend using the CPAN module. Type "perl -MCPAN -e shell;" from your shell. (If this is the first time you've ran the CPAN module you'll have to go through a little config first, but don't worry this is menu driven). Then type either (or all):- install Imager install GD install Image::Magick

The Image::Mate interface is copyright 2007, Lyle Raymond Hopkins. It is distributed under the same terms as Perl itself. See the "Artistic License" in the Perl source code distribution for licensing terms.